“I may now perhaps be asked, ‘If this chamber was neither a store-room nor a Promptuarium, what was it?’ It is not without hesitation that I attempt to answer that question. From its length, its double bay of arches, and its situation between the church, the refectory, and the Abbot’s apartments, I should have deemed it a cloister; probably _the_ Norman cloister, when the ground occupied by the present cloisters was differently appropriated; but, unlike a cloister, it is closed on every side, and the existence of the fire-place does not agree with that assumption; added to which the original windows are all on the side belonging to the Abbot’s apartments, the side to the church having been entirely closed with the exception of the postern. My belief is, that it was no other than the “Secunda Aula” itself, mentioned in Henry the Eighth’s charter; a sort of spacious hall for the accommodation of the Abbot’s friends and dependents, for the reception of strangers, and the exercise of that large hospitality which was dealt out so freely and bountifully in the eleventh and succeeding centuries in all important monastic establishments. That its claim to the title of the “Secunda Aula” has hitherto been overlooked, may arise from its having been erroneously considered (as by Ormerod) a sort of crypt, or subterranean building; whereas a little consideration of its level, and the ground around it, will shew us that it has only assumed that character since the sixteenth century.” {78} There is a vaulted passage at the south end of the “_Promptuarium_,” or “_Secunda Aula_,” leading from the Abbot’s apartments to the Cathedral. It is groined in exactly the same proportions as the bays of the Norman chamber, and the arches are circular, springing from pillars precisely similar, but the groining is ribbed, and not with cylindrical, but eliptical mouldings. These mouldings stamp a semi-Norman character on the work, being almost a transition to the early English style. [Picture: Norman doorway] Two beautiful Norman doorways gave ingress and egress from this passage, and still remain, though the one which opened to the present west cloister is closed, and sadly disfigured by the alterations of the sixteenth century. The other doorway to the west, is perfect, excepting the shafts of the pillars, which are gone. The capitals supporting one side of the architrave are foliated and of late character for Norman work.